May 2018. Updated July 2018.

The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has commissioned an evaluation of the changes from Budget 2016 and beyond.

The evaluation aims to:
- assess the implementation of service development and outcomes of SSHS;
- evaluate the changes in each separate provider initiative workstream and the extent the services achieve the desired aims  evaluate the extent the service changes improve access for people
who need the services and reduce the impact of sexual harm.

The evaluation team worked collaboratively with the MSD project team, specialist service providers and TOAH-NNEST to plan the evaluation. An overarching logic model provides the foundation for the evaluation and sets out the national level activities and outputs and how they align with service provider activities and outputs to achieve the desired outcomes.
The evaluation includes a formative, process and an impact evaluation.

This report is the formative evaluation report – the first evaluation report. It describes the four specialist services funded by MSD to minimise the impact of sexual harm, and service providers’ perspectives on what is working well and what is challenging. The report covers overall SSHS workforce demographics, confidence and competence in working with Māori and other cultural groups. Changes to the sector through Budget 16 preceded the start of the evaluation. (From the Executive summary). For background information, access the website. Record #6186